Acts 11:2–23

²And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, ^1athose who were circumcised took issue with him,

³saying, “^aYou ¹went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

⁴But Peter began speaking ¹and proceeded to explain to them ^ain orderly sequence, saying,

⁵“^aI was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw ^ba vision, ¹an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from heaven, and it came right down to me,

⁶and when looking closely at it, I was observing it and saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the ¹sky.

⁷“And I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise up, Peter; ¹slaughter and eat.’

⁸“But I said, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing defiled or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

⁹“But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘^aWhat God has cleansed, no longer consider defiled.’

¹⁰“And this happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into heaven.

¹¹“And behold, immediately three men appeared at the house in which we were, having been sent to me from ^aCaesarea.

¹²“^aAnd the Spirit told me to go with them ^1bwithout taking issue at all. ^cThese six brothers also went with me and we entered the man’s house.

¹³“And he reported to us how he had seen the angel ¹standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and summon Simon, who is also called Peter;

¹⁴and he will speak ^awords to you by which you will be saved, you and ^ball your household.’

¹⁵“And as I began to speak, ^athe Holy Spirit fell upon them just ^bas He did upon us at the beginning.

¹⁶“And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘^aJohn baptized with water, but you will be baptized ¹with the Holy Spirit.’

¹⁷“Therefore if ^aGod gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, ^bwho was I that I could prevent God’s way?”

¹⁸And when they heard this, they ¹quieted down and ^aglorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the ^brepentance that leads to life.”

The Church in Antioch

^19aSo then those who were scattered because of the ¹persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way ²to ^bPhoenicia and ^cCyprus and ^dAntioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.

²⁰But there were some of them, men of ^aCyprus and ^bCyrene, who came to ^cAntioch and began speaking to the ^1dGreeks also, ^eproclaiming the good news of the Lord Jesus.

²¹And ^athe hand of the Lord was with them, and ^ba large number who believed turned to the Lord.

²²Now the ¹news about them ²reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent ^aBarnabas off ³to ^bAntioch,

²³who, when he arrived and saw ^athe grace of God, rejoiced and began to encourage them all with a purposeful heart to remain true to the Lord;